Everyday Adventures

So I have been somewhat lax in my blogging, but this is because I have been having so many adventures. It was hard to decided which one to write about; wine tasting at Santa Carolina, hiking to a glacier in the Andes, eating chorillana (fries with egg, onion, and meat) in Valparaiso, or the numerous futbol games? But when I think of my Chilean adventures the past few weeks it is the tiny everyday challenges that I recall, and the small accomplishments I am most proud of. So without further adue I give a typcal daily adventure in Santiago...

8:00 Wake up and go into the kitchen where most days my breakfast is set up for me on a little tray. This consists of one or two fruits, ceareal with yogurt, or a grilled cheese sandwhich with a steaming cup of instant Nescafe coffee.

9:00 leave the house to catch the micro (city bus) one block from my house. Take the micro to the metro, throw self onto the metro because there are a millon other people on the platform, change lines. Try not to pass out in the sweltering heat of the metro. Read massive amounts of Mapuche history on public transportation.

9:30/9:40/10:00/Arive at the University depending on traffic and mysterious metro forces. Class. My classes are: Arte, Cultura, Estetica Mapuche (Mapuche are the indgenous people of Chile), Spanish, Cultural Urban Lanscape of Santiago, Cultural Diversity of Chile: Reality or Utopia?, Chilean Identity through the Media, Portugese. The fun part of these classes are that they are all in spanish (well, except Portugese), also Chileans LOVE group projects.

1:00-3:00 Go home via micro/metro for lunch, siesta, homework. Eat lunch outside, play with dogs, talk with Violet (the maid/house keeper person) who talks really fast and calls me mi hijta.

4:30 Back for more classes, runnng earands before going to the post office, puttng more money on my Bip (bus pass) figuring out weird University protocol/looking for offices.

6:00/7:00/8:00 Out to a movie, futbol game, shopping, ice cream with friends before the metro/micro ride home

8:00 Dinner with the family ethier outside or in my parents bedroom if its "cold" (70 counts as cold). We talk about our days, the news, cheese, and how Sergio is (my host brother who is in Spain, but coming home soon).

9:00/12:00 Homework, emails, CNN chile, and bed.

I figure everyday I make it out of my house then back home agian is a success. I love it here, I'm confused a lot of the time, but thats fun to! Just being in the hussle and bussle of the city, watching people on the metro, listening to the musicians who play on the buses, debating wether or not to get an empanada as a snack after class, talking with classmates in my broken (but improving) spanish, is an adventure in and of itself.